Gazprom Neft’s Omsk Refinery has selected the basic design for the closed-cycle treatment facilities which it plans to begin building in 2016. The unique combination of advanced technology in the new complex will enable up to 99% of contaminants to be removed from the water, atmospheric evaporation during water treatment to be reduced by 90%, and water consumption at the refinery to be cut by 50%.

The design includes a six-stage water treatment system which includes mechanical treatment, physical and chemical treatment, biological treatment using activated sludge, tertiary treatment using sand and carbon filtration, and UV disinfection. This enables up to 70% of the water to be returned to the refinery’s production cycle after treatment, thereby reducing the load on the city’s water treatment facilities.

The new treatment facilities will cover a total of six hectares, which is one-fifth of the size of the current facilities. Given that Omsk refines more than 20 million tonnes of oil every year, these treatment facilities will be not only the most compact but also the most efficient in Russia.

Oleg Belyavsky, General Director of the Omsk Refinery commented: “The construction of the cutting-edge closed-cycle treatment facilities is one of the largest environmental projects in Omsk Refinery’s modernization programme covering the period to 2020. The new facilities will be built in an extremely short timescale — by the end of 2017. The land where the old treatment facilities are located will undergo remediation, in a multistage process which will take place concurrently with the construction of the new facilities.”